Social media pipelines filled up in Paris crisis

Sites provide way to find shelter, check on loved ones in French capital

By Vindu Goel, and Sydney Ember

November 14, 2015

Photo: MARTIN BUREAU, Staff

Two men paint a mural reading "Pray for Paris" in tribute to the victims of Friday's deadly Paris attacks.﻿

Two men paint a mural reading "Pray for Paris" in tribute to the...

As the attacks in Paris were still unfolding Friday night, social media sites lit up as sources for information that went beyond the news.

Facebook activated its Safety Check tool, which allows users in an area affected by a crisis to mark themselves or others as safe. Facebook created the tool to help in times of crisis, a spokeswoman, Anna Richardson White, said Saturday, and it has activated it five times in the past year after natural disasters. But this was the first time it was activated for something like this, she said.

Facebook also made a profile picture frame available globally on its official page.

"We're offering our community the chance to change their profile pictures to show support for France and the people of Paris," White said.

Twitter, at the same time, put its new Moments tool to use, highlighting top news tweets about the attacks, as well as the prayers and good wishes posted by celebrities around the world, from actresses Salma Hayek and Emma Watson to presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Jack Dorsey, Twitter's chief executive, posted just two words on his social network - "So terrible" - with a link to one of the Moments collections.

Twitter quickly turned into a message board Friday night with information to help people in Paris get to safety. The hashtag "PorteOuverte" - "open door" - became a vehicle for offering shelter to those in Paris who needed it. A Twitter spokesman, Christopher Abboud, said Saturday that there were 1 million tweets with the hashtag in 10 hours.

The hashtag "prayforparis" was even more popular, Abboud said, with 6.7 million posts in 10 hours. And the hashtag "StrandedInUS" gained a lot of traction in the United States to help French people whose flights had been canceled.

The hashtag "RechercheParis" accompanied descriptions of loved ones and requests for information, Abboud said, and it was used to share news when someone who had been sought was found alive. He said there were 1 million tweets with the hashtag within 24 hours.

The hashtag "UneBougiePourParis" (a candle for Paris) was also trending, Abboud said.

"As I look out my window, I see a bunch of flickering lights in the Parisian night," he wrote in an email Saturday. He added that the streets were deserted, "but people need to connect somehow."

One tweet said: "This is very very sad. That's about all I can say. Thinking of the citizens of France and Paris in particular. LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ."